Minicomputers in pocket format, generally designated as PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), mobile navigation apparatus, cell phones and combinations of such apparatus are often used in motor vehicles. To facilitate their use in motor vehicles apparatus holders are known which include means for attaching the apparatus holder to the windshield, the dashboard or another suitable location of the motor vehicle. The apparatus holders also include often an adjustable support arm, for example, in the form of a so-called goose neck, and an apparatus support device for engaging and supporting the respective apparatus. It is also known to mount the apparatus support device on the support arm in a removable manner so that it can be replaced by another apparatus support device designed specifically for supporting another instrument or apparatus.
The use of such apparatus in a motor vehicle in connection with the support device described is advantageous in many respects since they are supported so as to be conveniently positioned relative to a vehicle driver and can easily be removed and carried along by the user, but there are some points which are not satisfactory when using the instruments or apparatus supported on such holders in a motor vehicle. For example, the acoustic reproduction of messages of a mobile navigation apparatus is difficult to understand when generated by the small loudspeakers of the apparatus as the driving, the wind, and the traffic noises are often overwhelming. Also, the cables needed in connection with such apparatus are often distracting for example when a GPS antenna is to be mounted on the windshield out of the field of sight of the driver or another suitable location and connected to the instrument via a cable which may loosely run through the passenger compartment and disturb the driver or passenger of the motor vehicle.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus or instrument holder which renders the use of such an apparatus or instrument in connection with a holder in a vehicle more convenient and more efficient.